Category: women’s lives

These are the things that have kept me from writing as much as I should so far this week: hormone headache/fogobsessive reading of Don Quixote so I can finish it (!)sudden worry that I am not educated enough to write anythinggoogling writing programs/workshops/classesreading the comments and testimonials of above and worrying even more that I … Continue reading getting out of my own way

Last night I had a dream. I was driving down the country highway that leads to tiny town. Suddenly I realized the windows were too fogged to see out of, and on top of that, I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I couldn’t see the road, the signs, the intersections, or anything at all. I began … Continue reading you just need something to eat

I can't seem to shake off the monastics. I'm continually drawn to their disciplined rhythms and focused intention in attempting to make an outer life that reflects their inner lives. A couple of years ago I came across the Third Order Franciscans - an Episcopalian order that commits to live by Franciscan principles in their … Continue reading a franciscan year

It's the middle of the third week of Advent and despite my well laid plans, I am as unprepared for Christmas as I've ever been. This weekend we'll get our tree. (One advantage to waiting this long is the tree farms usually start discounting their trees; the biggest, most perfect ones are picked over, but … Continue reading christmas, in twelve days

The old generation Okinawans are among the longest lived people in the world. They have a lot of tricks about how to accomplish this: a sense of life-purpose, intimate family/friend connections, a simple diet based on plants, regular gentle exercise such as walking and gardening. The other thing they practice is hara hachi bu - … Continue reading hara hachi bu

Recently, I pulled out my journal to see if I could remember when I started working on this new novel. I found the answer back in the July pages. The months before I'd been wrestling with the balance between what I felt were two distinct callings. One required availability, the other - writing - required … Continue reading becoming available to yourself

I went to the gym for the first time in almost thirty years this morning. I went with my husband, who has been asking me to come with him for almost as long. It's the kind of thing he thinks will be "fun," and I think will be dreadful. It wasn't dreadful. Just as he'd … Continue reading overcoming resistance

Night closes gently over the desert sky in a curtain of pink and amber. The dark, when it comes, spreads slowly down, as if from the center of a dome, pushing at the last of the pale light, driving it into the horizon. Then the stars come out, hundreds of them, a sequined carpet unfurled … Continue reading rabbit and bone

The idea of ceremony and ritual as a vital practice came to me in my thirties when I traveled across country to visit an online friend. Her home was a masterpiece of dedicated observation and ritual. There were candles to light for different times of day, music to set moods, books to be read at … Continue reading rosehip ceremony

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